Substantivformene

Substantivformene refers to the inflectional forms of nouns in Norwegian grammar, including gender, number, and definiteness, as well as how these forms interact with adjectives and other parts of speech. In modern Norwegian, nouns generally lack a distinct case system, but they do have clear patterns for singular and plural forms and for definite and indefinite use.

Norwegian nouns have two grammatical genders: common gender (utrum) and neuter (neutrum). Each noun carries a gender that governs the form of associated articles and the agreement of adjectives. The gender system is shared by both Bokmål and Nynorsk, though patterns and irregularities can vary between the two written standards.

Number describes how nouns appear in singular and plural. Pluralization follows several patterns depending on the noun class and dialect, with common endings such as -er, -e, or -ar in various forms, and some nouns retaining the base stem in plural. Some nouns have identical singular and plural forms in the indefinite plural, while others change more markedly in the definite plural.

Definiteness is expressed through definite forms. In Bokmål and Nynorsk, singular definite forms are typically created by suffixing an ending to the noun (for example, bil → bilen, hus → huset) and plural definite forms by suffixes such as -ene or -ene (bilene, husene). Indefinite forms use the bare noun with or without a separate article (en/ei/et for singular indefinite, ulike plural patterns for plural indefinite).

Genitive or possessive forms do not constitute a separate case in Norwegian nouns. Possession is shown with possessive pronouns (min, din, hans, hennes, vår, deres) or by adding ’s in appropriate contexts, often depending on style and dialect.

Substantivformene show moderate variation between Bokmål and Nynorsk, with Nynorsk preserving more distinct plural and definite endings for some noun classes. Overall, nouns exhibit a limited but systematic set of inflectional forms that govern agreement and syntax.